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Forty-three people in Azerbaijan who voted for a song by neighbouring Armenia in the Eurovision Song Contest have been questioned by the police.

One man told the BBC he was accused of being unpatriotic and a “potential security threat”, after he sent a text backing Armenia’s song, Jan Jan.

Although amusing, these sorts of stories always make me wonder about the mindset of people who achieve nationally significant positions of power. Is their grip on power so tenuous that they need to monitor who their citizenry vote for in a song contest? Are the government really using resources to read everyone’s phone texts? How distorted has their sense of patriotism become?